Look them in the eyes

Another day full of sweat and an empty stomach. Another day in the apocalypse.

Thomas and his crew, which really only consisted of himself, Steven, and Jennifer, had been on the hunt for food for the past four days. They had visited at least five different grocery stores, or what used to be grocery stores, and countless small pharmacies/mom-and-pops. All of them had already been raided before they got there. One of the stores had candy corn but Thomas preferred to keep his stomach empty than eat that filth. And it seems like whomever was ahead of them thought the same thing, since it was the only thing they had left behind.

More unbearable than the heat or the hunger, or all the clothes and the big mask he had to wear at all times in order to be able to breathe in this heat, was perhaps the fact that he wasn't with his family.

"We'll see them again, I promise" said Steven, the optimist of the group as he caught Thomas staring at his heart-shaped locket that contained a picture of his wife and his ten year old daughter as a baby. The only remaining item he had from them. He looked at that locket every hour of every day, trying to hold out hope but expecting the worst.

Thomas and his family had separated three months ago, when they were happily eating some scraps they had found in an abandoned restaurant. There was some honey left at the restaurant, essentially the only thing that hadn't expired or didn't smell like it died twenty years ago. They were sharing the honey when they saw some flashlights come through the restaurant windows. Before they knew it, the unknown crew had entered the restaurant and Thomas, his family, and Jennifer and Steven, had to scramble to get out of the restaurant without being noticed.

With the stress of not getting caught, and not losing the honey, Thomas and his crew ended up exiting the restaurant through a side door but when he turned around he didn’t see his family. He tried going back the way he came in but didn't see anything. He couldn't call out to them either, as to not attract attention.

They wandered around the restaurant as carefully as they could, but there were no traces of his family to be seen. They waited for hours until the other crew left and they went back into the restaurant, again not being able to find his wife or daughter. They searched for days around the area but no luck.

"They must have ran another direction and kept running thinking they were behind," Jennifer pointed out. Although not helpful, she was probably right and that was definitely a better outcome than if the other crew had captured them.

Now it had been three months and they still hadn't found them. What made matters worse was the fact that it was hard to identify people from far away. Everyone had to wear something on their faces in order to protect themselves from the sun and layers of clothes to help them handle the extreme heat waves during the day. It was practically impossible to tell who was who unless you got really close to them and you could look them straight in the eyes. They also had to change clothes constantly, even if it meant putting clothes others had left behind days ago, in order to keep them dry from sweat and to avoid being recognized by others.

"Right over there! That looks like a good possibility!" Steven whispered, a little too loudly, when he spotted a small shop that looked like it hadn't been raided yet.

"Let's check it out," Thomas said as they walked towards it.

The door hadn't been broken like at most other places they had visited. They stepped in and to their left there was an aisle with what looked like snacks. Towards the middle there was a section with different sets of clothes and to the right there were some fridges that had been off for at least a few months, but still had some bottles and cans in them that they could drink.

"JACKPOT!" yelled Jennifer in excitement. "Can't believe all of this is still here!" As she approached the snacks section and grabbed a few bags of chips and dipping sauce.

Thomas and Steven were headed towards the clothes section when they heard Jennifer yell again but this time in a cry of pain. "Guys, we are not...!" she started yelling before she went silent.

They ran towards her and there were three other humans surrounding her, they got in an altercation with them as two other smaller looking humans approached them. Somehow they were able to knock down two of the five, but Thomas got hit from behind and fell to the ground.

He turned around to face up and heard two loud bangs. He felt a sudden warmth around his chest and more liquid than the usual sweat. He looked down at his chest and touched it, realizing he was bleeding. He took out the heart-shaped locket from his chest pocket and gave it one more look before he dropped it on the ground from exhaustion.

"Thomas...?" one of the humans standing to his left said as they noticed the heart-shaped locket.

"Daddy?!" the other voice said between excitement and cries.

Thomas took one look over and looked at them straight in the eyes. It was them. His family. Steven was right, they would see them again. He let out a light smile, then he closed his eyes and hoped he would see them once again, in another life.